Lead Us
by Whovian-011
Summary: Was it pain that seemed to band these to together? Or was it their similarities and the things that seemed to divide them? Nothing could ever be certain in this life of chance, where fighting and saving lives was like Russian roulette and dodging the bullet got harder and harder every time. Would the pain they all held ever subside, or would it tear them all apart.
1. Falter

New story, guys. I've just been cranking out ideas and this is the finished product of one of them. Don't really know how long this will be. Just work with me on this and give constructive criticism.

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><p>"What do we do?" Megan said, pushing out her lower lip and holding onto Superboy. Typical. Superboy was just…himself, quiet and stone-faced; he showed no emotion at all during that time.<p>

"I'm gonna die down here, aren't I?" Kid Flash said, starting to vibrate uneasily.

'Don't say that! Kid Idiot!" Artemis says, looking at him with some type of hatred. After staring at him for a while, her expressions changes to a type of somber sadness and she mutters out to anyone who can hear.

"I don't know." She says, starting to rub her arms to keep arm, even though it almost burning in there.

"Kaldur, what do we do?" Robin says quietly. Everyone looks at him with wide eyes, but he's not focusing on them. He's focusing on me, the leader. The same leader that failed them…again. The words that come out of his mouth; that is not what gets everyone on edge. If you could only imagine how raw and broken he sounds to everyone else. He almost abandons the Robin that we know. He's gripping his forearm tightly, and you can see the blood dripping from it. The result of his many tries to get out of this place. He looks at me with such fear…I didn't even think it was possible for him.

"There is nothing to worry about. We will all get out of here. Just let me concentrate. Artemis, tend to Robin's wounds before they get worse." I say, trying to divert attention from me.

"Superboy, how far below are we?" I asked, looking up. Superboy looked in the same direction, and looked almost unfocused.

"Probably 40-50 feet, maybe more. I can't be sure." He says, holding onto M'gann, as if to comfort her. She responds to this by holding him tighter. Then she put her head into his shoulder.

"M'gann this is no time to cry." I say, so she doesn't do this in the future, and I continue. "We need you to be ready if enemy are approaching." I say calmly, not trying to scare anyone. Inside, I just wanted to explode. We couldn't risk Superboy just jumping out because he might hit something on the way and rocks will fall. M'gann is always taken off guard and might not block it in time.

"Anyone have a grappling hook?" I asked, looking at Artemis and robin, the most likely to have it. The nodded at me, taking them out from their holders.

"Wait!" Superboy pretty much yells, and then freaks M'gann out. Something I really wanted to avoid.

"What!" She screeches, searching his face for some clue. "What happened?" Superboy takes her hands in his, moving her away. She bit her lip and stayed quiet, wanting an answer. He let go of her and tapped his head. She immediately put everyone on.

"_Superboy, what's wrong?" She says, and everyone winces at her tone. She tries to recover herself, and does so badly._

"_I smell gasoline and lots of people approaching." Superboy thought,not making any eye contact._

"_Holy…They're going to blow us up." He says, astonished, as if he didn't know that day would come._

"_Yeah… That's what they are going to try to do. Just a lighter and we are done." He says, and everyone starts to panic._

"_This is all your fault, Kid Idiot!" Artemis thinks fiercely, hitting him in the head. He turns to look at her._

"_Why are you hitting me? And what do you mean it's all my fault?"_

"_Well, if you didn't rush into action to hurt the bad guys, we wouldn't need to save you."_

"_Is it my fault that I'm faster than the rest of you?" Kid Flash stated._

"_Well, we're in this hole because of you." Artemis said, pointing at him._

"_No. That's not true. OK, maybe I rushed in, but you guys should have been able to handle yourselves. If I was on my own, maybe it would be my fault, but each of us got here on our own accord, including you. So Shut up." He thinks, looking straight at her. They kept glaring at each other while Kaldur formulated a plan._

"_Alright, this is what we do. Me and M'gann will go out first, and when we are up she will levitate everyone else on by one. Understood. Trying to get out on our own is not an option anymore. Can you do it, M'gann?" They all nodded to his plan ands he continued._

"_Start levitating us both, M'gann." He thought, and then they both started to go up. The whole process of it all took about 5 minutes. When they were up, all they saw was different tanks of gasoline splattered all around the room. The gas was all over the room covering almost every part of the floor._

"_M'gann, how many people are approaching?" Kaldur asked quickly._

"_More then 100. They're all about 4 minutes away from here. They're coming." That's only enough time for one person._

"_Start with Robin, then, Superboy. Afterwards, get Artemis and Wally. Kaldur thought, since the link was still on._

"_Why do I come last?" Kid Flash whined._

"_Because we're expecting more than usual, and you are partly injured. He thought back, then continued._

"_Alright M'gann start now, we're wasting time._

Kaldur started readying himself for a fight. Since he'd be fighting with Robin by his side he wasn't worried at all. What worried him was the gasoline tanks scattered around. Two minutes had passed and you could almost hear the henchmansurrounding the factory.

"Alright, Robin's out! I'll get started on Superboy, but he might take longer." M'gann said, looking over her shoulder.

"How many of them?" Robin asked, taking out his staff.

"More than 100." Kaldur replied.

"Sounds like fun. How long until Superboy?" Robin asked.

"Appoximatly 5 minutes. He's a lot more heavy than I expected." M'gann said. The sounds were getting louder, and the steps they were making were getting stronger.

"They're still alive! Let's get them!" The henchman had said. Out of the people that were there, no one had guns. They only had knives, swords and other instruments of torture. _I'd rather see guns than this..Jeez._ Robin thought. Kaldur positioned himself in front of M'gann.

"I trust that you will keep them back, Robin." He said, briefly glancing at him from the corner of his eye. Robn scoffed, then smirked at the words.

"Can you expect anything less?" Robin said, running to fight the enemy. They hadn't posed much of a problem. It was fairly easy and a good plan on Kaldur's part. Anyone who got past Robin would be taken care of by Kaldur. If you took one down, two more would come through the door. And it takes atleast three tries to keep them down. Robin and Kaldur were excellent fighters, kicking and punching at the right times. Then, there was a very loud growl and many of the opposition went down.

Conner... they both thought and laughed to themselves, well Robing smirked and laughed a little insanely, stopping the enemy for a second. That also gave him an opening to take out 20 of them. Some of them weren't fighting at all, just grabbing all the unconscious and clearing space for the rest of them, which actually frightened Robin. Why would they get them now and not later, since we were only fighting to get out...unless they weren't getting out.

They wanted them to stay in.

"Kaldur, we need to get out. Now!" Robin yelled. It was louder than need, which made Kaldur more alert.

"Alright! Miss M, focus!" he yelled, wehich made her bring up Artemis in the next minute.

"Let's do this!" she yelled, taking down way too many people with one arrow. She kept going until she realized the same thing that Robin saw. _This is one of Dad's tactics... We're in deep shit._

"Kid Flash is out! Let's get the information we took and get out of here!" She yelled, starting to call the bio-ship within range. Everyone started to run through the henchman, getting to the one door that was open on the western side. Once they were inside, Robin locked the door. Artemis pulled out the flashdrive and handed it to Robin.

"Superboy, Kid Flash, and Robin take the left and left-center. Me, M'gann, and Artemis take the right and right-center. Agreed?" He asked, and they all nodded ready to charge. They opened the door but the scenery had all but completely changed. Everyone had left the warehouse.

Everyone except for one human being. A person with a mask, holding a match...surrounded by leaking gasoline tanks. Kaldur tried his best to stay calm and turned away from him.

"I will handle this. get to the ship and I will be there shortly." he said. All of their eyes widened at the statement. AT that moment, Kaldur became the best liar out of the whole team because he knew he wouldn't be there.

"But... Aqua-"

"This is an order from your leader. And anyways," He said, starting to smirk enough for Robin to see. "You'll probably get in the way" as he ended his sentence, he jumped over the steps. Robin smiled to himself. _i knew I was rubbing off on him... he thought._

"Alright guys, he can handle Sports-master long enough to get 's go." They left quickly, running to the ship that was roughly a 1/2 mile away. All that was left to deal with was Aqualad, Sportsmater and a match that would be the death of one of them.

"You know I'm not going to fight you, right?" He said, taking out the lighter. He started to click it multiple times until it came on. Then, he held the lighter under the match and held them both his hands.

"I know that for a fact, yes." Kaldur replied, coolly. They stayed in the same place, not moving an inch.

"You're giving up a lot for them, too bad they may never recover your body." he says, throwing the lighter and match so high that it twirls...1...2...3 twirls and then Sports-master leaves quickly through the exit behind him. Kaldur already knows he will not be able to get out by the time the gasoline blows. Kaldur concentrates fully and makes a protective barrier layered with lightning and water. Then it happened, and all of the tanks of gasoline went of simultaneously. And the whole warehouse imploded. The barrier was weakening and the fire was so intense. There was nothing Kaldur could do at that point. The barrier he had made started to falter, letting him feel the full force of the building on top of him. The fire was consuming the building and taking his life.

_ At least...he thought, At least I'm dying to protect my family, an honorable death, indeed... he thought as the smoke and flames took him away._

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><p>This is why I didn't put the character on it yet. Everyone expects it to be Robin or something. I love Robin with all my heart but sometimes you got to do characters someone seems to remember. Shoutout to the ones who love Kaldur.<p> 


	2. Live or Die

Well, I'm pleased with this story's beginning. Today is Monday for me and I'll let you know that the chapter will be up then. DOn't worry about anything else just review.

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><p>"Alright you guys. M'gann, turn the ship around so we can go and get Kal-"<p>

**BOOM!**

They were powerless to move under the intense power of the flames they were seeing. They were locked in place, unable to even breathe loudly in the sight of the fire. The first of unlock themselves and take charge were Artemis and Robin; they were already accustomed to seeing things like this.

"M'gann snap out of it! We don't have time for that! Get the ship moving!" Robin yelled, not even trying to be calm with her. She got the ship moving in record time, but her eyes betrayed no emotion. When they got to the dilapidated building, they all rushed out of the ship to agian stare at the scene n front of them. It was even worse then before. The whol building had crashed down, parts of it spread across the plain. They all started to run, goingto their knees and agrily tossed parts of the building away to fid Kaldur.

"AH!" screamed a frantic M'gann, who had went to her knees and was clutching her head when Robin went to her. The rest of the team followed suit. Maybe she had located Kaldur.

"Call the League! Call them now!" she screeched, lowering her head into her thighs. You coudl hear the tears falling from her eyes in the silence.

"M'gann, tell me why. Did you find Kal?" robin asked, picking her torso up to look at him. He didn't have time for any of this when Kaldur was stuck under there, dying.

"Conner,listen hard. His heart: it's offbeat. He's alive,but he's dying." They wait 2 seconds for Conner to confirm this and get back to work. Conner pointed out the apprximate position he was in and evryone started to go and reavage it to find him.

"I'll-I'll call Batman." Robin said, hanging back and starting to hack into the Watchtower.

"Robin to Batman, come in." He said, but all he got was static. He tapped the communicator and tried again.

"Robin to Batman, come in." He said, starting to get a little unhinged. Why wasn't he replying? He always replied by the second calling, or he would turn it on if he was in a meeting so he could hear where Batman was.

"BATMAN!" He screamed suddenly. He hadn't meant to do it, but the smell of it all...It was getting to him.

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><p>It was a simple meeting, complete with arguments and some small talk about unimportant things until the scream. The one weakness that every single founder shared, no matter what. That one weakness that could take a permanent hold on their hearts and =never let go until the source of his pain was eliminated.<p>

"BATMAN!" The scream had said, asking- no pleading for the Dark Knight. Batman's hands trembled slightly as he quickly pulled it out and tried to understand exactly what he was hearing.

"Robin. Come in, Robin. What's your status?" Batman said, prompting him to speak.

"We need...Flash, Manhunter, Superman, Green Arrow...just all the mentors and you. Now!" he said, as an ear-splitting scream went through the communicator. Manhunter stood up suddenly.

"That's M'gann." He said as they tried to listen to any other information as they started to leave the room. All they could hear were deep crackling noises and deep breathes.

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><p>"M'gann! M'gann! What's wrong?" Robin asked, rushing over to her. She was crying at full force and no one had tried to stop her. They were still digging. Robin grabbed her arms and shook her a few more times.<p>

"WHat happened?" he said, shaking her again.

"I- I put a- put a - link between- me and- me and KAl. But- But he's off the link! I felt his pain! He's- He's-"

"HE's what? M'gann, spit it out!" Robin said, clearly loosing his patience.

"I could see everything. The pain...he thinks he's going to die. But he was okay with it. He was happy to die for his family." she said, sinking to her knees as Robin let her go. Everyone started to grab with their bare hands. Wally, Robin and Artemis's hands were bloody and dried, bleeding ever so often as Conner announced to them a find.

"It's Kaldur! He's over here!" Conner had yelled. They all ran over to him but took a step back at first encounter. Kaldur wasn't Kaldur anymore. There were burns scattered across his arms and legs. Obvious burns on his stomach since blood had seeped through. He probably had broken ribs and bruised arms and legs. The stark difference came up to his face. It was perfectly fine, as if there was never a fire. If someone put a blanket to cover him, he would look like he was went to his side and checked his pulse.

"Barely. Artemis get over here, we need to stabilize him." He said, starting to pound on his chest. Artemis then breathed for him and they repeated the cycle many times. Then, Kaldur breathed in on his own. It was not in the way imagined; slow and deep. It was actually fast, abrupt, and it sounded down right painful. The last breath he would take would sound as if a vacuum was taking in wood bits. He pushed a hand out, grabbing Robin's and bringing close to whisper words into his ear. He had talked for only 30 seconds. Then after a few moments...Kaldur's arm went limp. M'gann started to cry again as Artemis and Robin scrounged for his hands, grasping them placed himself in front of Kaldur;s head, lifting it and placing him on his thighs. Wally looked up at Artemis and Robin.

"Both of you stop crying. Keep him alive until The League gets here." Wally said, his face and voice taking everyone by surprise. He was devoid of all emotion. He had no tears, no sadness, just hidden pain etched across his face. _Exactly how he was when his mom died...Robin thought. _He shuddered momentarily and both him and Artemis did as Wally asked. This saddening cycle of life-saving continued until the mentors of Young Justice came.

"C'mon Kaldur! Wake up! Say something, please." Robin said, pushing his chest faster. The mentors hesitated for a second when they smell the blood, but it's nothing they aren't used to. They didn't speak a word on what they were seeing , they just got the Zeta-Beam to bring to the mountain's med-bay. Everyone was completely silent as the doctors took Kaldur behind the doors and everyone was silent as they sat in another room. They were still covered in his blood, and no one felt like doing anything to changed how they looked. There was no nervousness, fidgeting or movement. Everyone just stayed silent. Everyone was spaced away from each other as if they couldn't bear the sight of another person.

"What happened?" Batman asked, expecting an answer.

And he would get one.

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><p>Yeah, so I would have taken this chapter and split it into two if I wanted to take my time. But I won't. I'm going to give you the full thing because the next chapter is a little...graphic. That's what I'll call it. Graphic. It's named Psycho. You already know what that means.<p>

Read. Review. Favorite. Makes me love this place more.


	3. Famous Last Words

"Well, we were fighting all of their henchman, but after a while they were gone. We got the information that you needed. We were about to leave when we were intercepted by Sportsmaster. Kaldur- he tumbled over the word- told us to leave that he would be able to handle it." Robin started to move his thumbs in a circular motion, to keep his mind on other things than what he was saying.

"We went to the ship and were about to go back for him when the warehouse blew up. We ran to it while it was destroyed and started to look for him. HE was all...how he was and we kept him alive, me and Artemis. Then, he told me...he, said..." Robin covered his mouth with his hand and hanged his didn't speak for moments in that space of time before leaving the room quickly, not even glancing at anyone as he left. "I'm...I'm gonna go check on him, and stuff..." Wally announced before leaving to find him.

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><p>Robin ran through the hallways finding his way into the kitchen. He picked up one of the buckets that M'gann used when she would destroy something that she made. He put it in between his legs and began to empty his stomach into it. when he was done, he laid back looking up and watching the lights twinkle above him. It's always me...I have to listen to everyone's Famous Last Words, he thought as he threw up again. Somethings never change, it just has to be me. Mom say this, Dad says that. It hurts, It always hurts.<p>

"What did he tell you?" Wally had asked as he squatted in front of him. Robin didn't answer, he never wanted to answer. It's fucking irrelevant, for me to say something so impossible. Wally sighed and sat next to him and brought his knees to his chest.

"He reminded me of mom, you know that?" he whispered, as if the rooms were bugged,(but who really wants to bug the room M'gann cooks in -_-) then Wally continued with "'course, this wasn't self-inflicted and I didn't see it happen so close, but there are some similarities." he said softly. Robin looked over at him and tried to not say anything but let out a low-

"How?" He had said this while straightening his arms and taking a deep breath to make sure he listened to the answer.

"His face, how...I guess how peaceful it looked and-" he started making a sound that was somewhat between a sob and laughter. As if he was losing his mind, just unwinding in front of Robin.

"The amount of blood around him was close, too. It was just so similar. And, my mom." He said, blowing out a sharp breath before trying to explain his pause. Robin picked up his head to look into his eyes. They had lost their color again.

"When my mom was dying and everything, I put her head on my lap and all that stuff. Then I did the same thing for Kaldur, which totally brought back a lot of things I had tried to suppress. And then she died." he said, softly. He stood up in front of Robin and without giving him a glance,and said simply,"You're pathetic." Then, he walked to the kitchen counter and picked up one of the glass vases. Without any hesitation, he threw it into one of the walls. The shards of glass went every which way, and could have hit them for all they knew. Robin eyes widened at the sight but he struggled to respond.

"What?" Robin whispered, looking up at him again. Wally looked back at him, tilting his head up as he stared at the lights in the ceiling.

"You heard me. You are acting so pathetic!" He said, still composed as he made some type of sneering noise with his teeth. He enunciated the last word, conveying as much pain as any person could before he continued.

"You know damn well that he is alive, but you can't tell us exactly what he said. He is alive, Robin! Which is a stark difference from our parents! So just tell me what he- !" Wally had fallen back(possibly on some glass) but looked up and blinked hard to see Robin breathing hard with blood on his right hand. Wally smirked on the inside, almost wishing he could see his face. _He's back, finally._

"Kaldur said that he wanted me to tell his mom he loved her. He knew he hadn't seen her in a while. He said "don't let the team forget me. Don't let the League forget me. Let them all know that I will always remember them. That's what he said." Robin finished, going back to his formal position on the floor, breathing heavily.

Wally wiped some of the blood coming out of his nose. "Alright, so why are you so hurt by that? Those were Kaldur's last words, right? You should be proud to have heard them. I can remember what my mom said to me..."I love you". That's what she said. It seemed like a pretty fucking sick joke to me. If she really loved me, she wouldn't have done that. She would have talked to me, told me something. I could have helped her, but she just disappeared from my life. She kills herself and leaves me with my father, who at that time puts himself in this illusion of it being my fault. Now he's in jail and...shit, something got in my eye." He says, covering his face with his hands and sobbing quietly, without finishing what he said.

"I...I know all of this but every time...every time I hear you cry I just feel like killing your sack of shit dad. Even though he's not your dad, Flash is. That's why you call him that, call him dad whenever your talking to me. You should cal Flash that again, he'd be..proud, more or less." Robin said, sniffling. They may have been crying but they were glad to have gotten off the subject of Kaldur.

Was it pain that seemed to band these to together? Or was it their similarities and the things that seemed to divide them? Nothing could ever be certain in this life of chance, where fighting and saving lives was like Russian roulette and dodging the bullet got harder and harder every time. Would the pain they all held ever subside, or would it tear them all apart. Answers are fleeting and they will always be discouraged in this life, for there is no time for answers when your life isn't i your own hands. The price of being a hero is high, so why...tell me why...only children are willing to pay that price.

"Wally?" Robin asked, since they were both sprawled across the kitchen floor now, going through their process of deep life questions that they kept inside, waiting for moments like these when they couldn't keep them in any longer.

"Kaldur will live, everyone may just live...but what about the future. Things will change, now will become great memories. What will it be like then Wally? DO you know?" He said softly, and he got no answer from his best friend for a while. Wally may have been an idiot to people he wanted to make like him, or put some type of presence to hide himself but when you ask him a deep question, he'll give you an answer that just blows you away. His subtle way of making you analyze everything was just...breathtaking to hear. Robin needed something like that, something that would distract him in a good way.

"Wally-"

"It'll be tough." Robin heard as Wally took a deep breath. Explanations were all part of how Wally operated. Say something simple and explain so it sounds like the universe is involved.

"The Justice League raised us...more you than anyone else. You'll have the hardest time making a name for yourself. Most will still name you Batman's sidekick and shit but all of the people with a brain in the superhero community will respect your work, I know I do. This world will have a new crop of superheroes and new villains, ones that may have been made to only combat our generation and can easily take out the last. We'll have to protect our elders while getting our own partners, something your father started on his own, which I am very thankful for. Your dad...he won't let you go without a fight, man." Wally wasn't done, saying just those words, he wanted everything to sink in, to be remembered.

He'll treat you like the small, bony seven year old who was scared of lightning. He'll do that because you are his son and all he'll want is to protect you. So when you tell him you want to be on your own, don't get angry or anything. But, I'm leaving at eighteen, going to try and do things on my own. Flash'll probably pass the mantle on to me, what with the twins turning...five by then. Then I'll be training those two and the cycle will continue. That's what I want to happen. You'll get a sidekick easy, there's always someone who wants justice in a dark place. And if you stick around long enough, Batman'll probably give you the Justice League and the company. In about 10 years, we'll have the second...generation...Justice League." They both laughed and seemed to fall asleep, from what, the world will never know.

But Wally words will always be remembered...by the Justice League members in the Watchtower who had watched the exchange, the Young Justice member with the two founders who had been watching in another room.

And Kaldur, who's television changed to that part of the mountain as he opened his eyes again.

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><p>Now, I think this chapter had become one of my personal favorites. I think I actually thought about how I wanted them to really be like and that would be it. I'm sorry for that terrible wait, but things are always going downhill in the home.<p> 


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